NIRT: Nanoengineered Responsive Polymer Surfaces for Micro/Nanofluidic Bioanalytical Systems NSF NIRT Grant 0304568

The ultimate success of micron/nanofluidic bioanalytical systems heavily hinges on new micro/nanofluidic technologies to meet the demands of practical applications. A critically important technological challenge involves the ability to modify and functionalize surfaces in such systems. We explore nanoengineered stimulus-responsive polymer brushes [2] as an innovative platform for surface modification and functionalization in micro/nanofluidic devices. Stimulus-responsive polymers undergo strong reversible conformational changes in response to small changes in environmental parameters (e.g., temperature, pH, and electric field). A salient feature of this project involves using recent advances in macromolecular engineering techniques to produce polymer surfaces with precisely controlled chain length, uniformity, composition, topology and functionality. Micro/nanofluidic surfaces modified as such would have optimal intelligent behavior wit